Our Rage Won’t Die – Part 1

Few kits currently available in the chaos range can conjure such disgust and disappointment from fans  as the Khorne Berserkers. First released over a century ago, the fact that the Berserkers remain on sale today makes a mockery of the company’s proud boast to make the finest toy soldiers in the world. Only the most perversely deranged of the pantheon’s followers find even the slightest glimmer of pleasure in these lumpen, ill-proportioned horrors, and even they wholeheartedly agree that even unconverted Blood Warriors from Age of Sigmar make infinitely superior Berserkers. Indeed some suspicious souls would go so far as to suggest that GW has held back on releasing new Berserkers in order to boost sales of the AoS range (do remember however that although a suspicious mind is a healthy mind to question the wisdom of They-Who-Art-In-Nottingham is to invite the scrutiny of the Inquisition…).

Now on a more sensible note it’s safe to say that, in the wake of the Thousand Sons and the Death Guard, a full release for the World Eaters is probably not too far away. A reasonable man would crack on with painting the dozen or so projects already demanding his attention and wait for Angron’s legion to get their moment in the sun. Patience however is anathema to the followers of Khorne who prefer to rush in (chainswords revving) where the (Emperor’s) angels fear to tread, and I’ll confess I’m no different. With modern space marines reaching the proportions they’ve always deserved I’m not about to let Khorne’s followers miss out for a second!

The Death Guard may have new models to enjoy but at least the warriors of Khorne can still look them in the eye!

Although my old berserker conversions are looking a little on the short side now…

As a first shot I’m pretty happy with this chap, although there are a few things I’d change next time round. For one thing the smooth, clean lines of the loyalist armour doesn’t exactly match up with the jagged styling’s of the Blood Warrior, although hopefully that will become less obvious after he’s painted. The model also has a sense of the weight concentrating in the upper part of the body so next time I might try using the slightly more heavily armoured legs from the Hellblasters rather than the slimmer Intercessors. I’m planning on making a few more soon though so any feedback at this stage is especially welcome.

All That’s Left Is Blood – Part 9

Behold! Another berserker ready to reap skulls to lay before the Blood God’s throne!

All That’s Left Is Blood – Part 7

I believe I promised another squad of Khorne berserkers…

Pure Hatred – Part 1

Before I take on the next batch of berserkers I wanted to give myself a little breather – but without actually deviating from the Khornate theme and wandering off to get lost in the tangled undergrowth of other projects that waits hungrily on the edge of my painting desk. That, I fear, is the way madness lies and so I won’t let anything sway me from my course – not Skaven, or Plague Marines, or those Orks I’ve been meaning to get round to for ages, or indeed anything that does not worship the Blood God with unrelenting fury. However a man cannot paint by power-armour alone and life is at its finest when there are lots of terminators around. Whilst a standard space marine (of either chaotic or loyalist persuasion) takes a little effort to look as good as it should a terminator looks fierce straight out of the box, lording it over its smaller, weaker brothers like the warrior-kings they are (indeed, by giving us access to imposing looking marines for minimal effort painting terminators is in many ways like true-scaling for lazy people!). This blog however doesn’t have ‘convert’ in its name for nothing. Time to start chopping up chaos terminators, khorne berserkers and wrathmongers.

I love the huge flails carried by the wrathmongers and they seem like the perfect weapon for a Khornate terminator – a man who combines the speed, skill and raw strength to wield such a weapon with the uncompromising desire to do as much damage as possible without caring about the danger to himself or any allies that stray too close. If I was writing or painting the scene I’d probably have the heads of flails on fire as well to add to the shock and horror inflicted on the poor guardsmen he’s attacking. However as I absolutely hate sculpted fire I decided to avoid that and stick to straightforward blunt trauma.

I’m rather pleased with the skull emerging from his armour under the shoulder pad – my little greenstuff reference to the skulls embedded in the flesh of the Age of Sigmar Khorne models.

Nor is this angry man alone. His battle-brother is currently standing at the ‘part-painted; looks atrocious’ midway stage of painting but hopefully I’ll get him finished off over the weekend and show him off to you all early next week. In the meantime here’s a ‘pre-primer’ WIP to tide you over.

As usual comments and feedback are welcome!

All That’s Left Is Blood – Part 6

The Bloodcleave: a band of ferocious killers, dedicated to the service of the Blood God and drawn to Kell’s ranks as he began to sack the fortress worlds of the southern Kadatheron sector. To Kell himself they have little loyalty however, and their disgust at the presence of the servants of other gods amongst his ranks has earned them the enmity of many of their erstwhile allies. Nonetheless they know that Kell’s wars serve Khorne, though the Chaos Lord may not admit it himself, and in doing so draws His gaze upon those who stand at his side. Thus they feign loyalty until the day comes to spill the blood of Kell himself, offering up his skull in a final orgy of sacrifice.

—

The second eight Berserkers are unleashed! Khorne be praised! Like the Bloodbeasts I wanted an icon of wrath to round out the squad and the weird head of the Khorgorath gave me the inspiration I was looking for.

Of course, I’m sure you all realise what this means. With eight models painted and the squad complete it can only be group-shot o’clock.

As usual comments and feedback are very welcome and scions of the Blood God should fear not – more Khornate killers are on their way soon!

All That’s Left Is Blood – Part 4

Fear not gentle readers! I have neither died, fallen into the Warp or been reduced to a gibbering Spawn – although I will admit to having lost momentum a little with my horde of Berserkers over the last week or so, mostly because real life has been gobbling up the time that I might otherwise have been painting. In an effort to get back on track I decided to finish off the last member of my first squad of Khorne Berserkers. You may recall that I had recently decided to split my growing horde of blood-mad warriors into two separate squads of eight men each.  Squad Kadrax – the second squad -– are already well underway but before I go any further with them there’s one last model needed to round out the first squad.

Like all frustrated Warhammer fans I know that no squad is complete without a banner and to my mind there are few things as evocative of the impractically pseudo-medieval quality of 40k than warriors rallying to a flag or an icon of the gods. With that in mind I rounded out the squad with an Icon of Wrath to remind my berserkers that they battle in Khorne’s name and for His glory.

And there we have it – the Blood Beasts are complete at last and, if all goes according to plan, a second squad is soon to follow. Until then here’s a couple of group shots to keep you going.